Tara Hancherow is living the dream she hoped she would be
able to achieve.
"At 13 I knew that I had found something that I really
wanted to do," Hancherow said. "Then at 18, I was like ‘wow, I really
can’. So I was really happy to know that I was able to do that."
The young skater has been training and competing in pairs
for five years, after leaving her home town of Tisdale at the age of 13 and moving to Quebec.
"It's changed my lifestyle a lot, but in a good
way," she remarked. "I go to school, I do online classes and then
I'll be going to university next year. Every day I skate from Monday to Friday,
but on the weekends we are off. We also do training at the gym, or yoga or
stretching. Skate Canada supports us with all that and really wants us to do
the best that we can."
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| Tara Hancherow and her skating partner, Wesley Killing |
Hancherow had a partner whom she trained with for the first
while, then just over a year ago she began working with a different partner -
Wesley Killing - who comes from Ontario.
"We had the same goals: he wanted to do Grand Prix and
I wanted to do Grand Prix, and we both wanted to make it to Junior Worlds,"
Hancherow said in a telephone interview from Quebec. "I really liked this
year, we accomplished everything that we wanted to, so I'm really happy about
that."
Besides competing in the Junior Worlds, the pair also
competed in two Grand Prix, one in Slovakia and one in Estonia. But it took a
lot of hard work for the two skaters to get to where they are now - 7th place
in the 2014 Junior Worlds.
"It took time to get to know each other, to get along
with each other and to know what everyone wants," admitted Hancherow.
"We had the same goals, and that was good, but it was a hard experience.
We had to work really hard, the training was never easy, but we did it as a
team and I'm really, really proud of ourselves for doing that."
When asked whether confidence came naturally or whether it
was something that came with time, Hancherow explained that the work they do
with their coaches, (Annie Berubé and Maxim Coia) off the ice was just as
important as the work they do on the ice.
"We talk about what we want to do and what our goals
are," she explained. "If we didn't have that, it would be hard. Every
day is not going to go 100 per cent. Some days it doesn't go like we want, but
we have to accept that, and move on and make the best of it."
Because they are both near the age limit for junior
classification (Hancherow is 18, Killing is 21) the couple will have to move to
senior status in competition if not next year the year after.
For now though, Hancherow seems to have found her niche in
a sport that she loves. She has these words of advice to other young skaters
who think they would like to try their hand at moving beyond skating just as a
hobby:
"Believe in yourself," she said simply. "I
think that's what it takes, because if you don't believe in yourself, then no
one else will."
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